Print Version 2.0 is here to stay, says Andy McCourt

Predictions on the demise of print are not worth the paper they are printed on, according to industry commentator Andy McCourt.

McCourt, (pictured) the keynote speaker at the Print 20//20 – a Vision for the Future dinner briefing being staged by Printing Industries in Sydney on 14 July, believes the challenges, criticisms and moves to discourage the use of print are ill-advised, usually based on ignorance or not properly thought through.
 
“In the past month we have heard four seismic statements relating to print’s future,” he said.
 
“The first was the release of the PaperlinX/SunChemical-sponsored report predicting that end user markets for printed-paper will decline by 32.5 per cent by 2020. The second was a surprise from archetypal newspaperman Rupert Murdoch who said: ‘I can see the day, maybe 20 years away, where you don't actually have paper and ink and printing presses …’
 
“The third was California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s education-reversing decision to rid that state’s schools of printed textbooks. The fourth was Australia Post’s decision to make it even more expensive to distribute printed matter via the mail system.”
 
McCourt said that during the briefing he would attempt to show why these four ‘apocalyptic horsemen’ were in fact “riding brumbies backwards in the bush”.
 
“There can be no doubt that print communications will change and become even more merged with digital datastreams but Print – Version 2.0 – is here to stay,” he said.
 
“We still have trains after 80 years of air travel, we still have radio 60 years after television, we still have bicycles 110 years after the automobile and we’ll still have print thousands of years after the internet.”
 
The Print 20//20 – a Vision for the Future dinner, which is being supported by Océ, will be held on Tuesday 14 July from 6.30pm-9.30pm at the Waterview Convention Centre, Bicentennial Park, Homebush. Registration is available via www.printnet.com.au or by email to: info@printnet.com.au

The attendance cost is $110 for Printing Industries members and $135 for non-members covers dinner, drinks and parking.